As sheriffs executed the warrant at the studio, one asked Rivera about searching his home. Rivera says the deputy threatened to kill his dog if he didn’t cooperate. “We can do this the easy way and you can take us to your house to look around,” Rivera recounts the deputy saying, “or we can detain you for six hours while we get a warrant and go to your house and shoot your dog.”

This is an absurd misuse of power, and I think Russ Belville really hit the nail on the head when he said: “This threat is nothing more than emotional terrorism by our domestic police force to trample a disabled man’s Fourth Amendment rights in a crusade over a plant.”

The threatening or killing of family pets isn’t a new tactic for law enforcement during these types of raids, one example being the video from a raid in Columbia, MO in which a man’s dog was shot seven times. It sickens me deeply to know that the people appointed to protect us are the ones dealing the damage, we need to really make our voices heard in this fight for legalization in hopes of keeping harmless patients and medical marijuana providers safe.

If I didn’t know better, some of this week’s headlines might have me wondering if the American marijuana market is about to come to a crashing halt.

Record Marijuana Bust: $205 Million In Pot Plants Eradicated In Ventura County

Officials from the Venture County Sheriff’s department pulled in a record haul at a massive marijuana bust last week, the department announced today.

According to the official press release, the interoffice effort between a number of local officials and the United States Forest Service (USFS) managed to collect 68,488 marijuana plants at a large growing operation in the Los Padres National Forest just north of the city of Ojai.

The estimated street value for the record breaking bust was $205,464,000. (Huffington Post)

Meanwhile in Mexico, there’s plenty of excitement in the air as well:

Mexico Finds Large Marijuana Farm in Baja California

Mexican soldiers discovered one of the largest marijuana plantations ever found in the country, just 200 miles south of San Diego, Calif., the Mexican Defense Ministry said.

Mexican officials said on Thursday that the plantation, in Baja California, stretched as far as the eye could see—totaling some 120 hectares (296 acres). The crop would yield about 120 metric tons and be worth an estimated $160 million, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. (WSJ)

This is pretty typical stuff as far as celebratory drug prohibition press releases are concerned, but that hardly excuses the epic levels of drug war idiocy on display here. Let’s just think critically for one second and consider how you’d feel if you were tasked with the responsibility of preventing marijuana cultivation, and you just kept discovering ever more mindblowingly enormous marijuana plantations every single year.

It is a sign of progress, yes, but not on the part of the vast drug war armies dedicated to stopping people from growing staggering amounts of marijuana all over the northern hemisphere. The only discernible progress any reasonable person could observe here would have to be credited to those whose mission it is to overwhelm law-enforcement with an ever-intensifying cultivation campaign that promises to make them rich regardless of whatever percentage happens to get hauled off by the cops.

You would never find an oncologist bragging that he’s finding the biggest tumors of his career and calling it a victory in the fight against cancer. Marijuana is hardly cancer, of course, but I wouldn’t bet these pot crusaders are entirely clear on the distinction, which is why I still struggle to comprehend their ongoing and obsessive tendency to boast about something they ought to find perfectly disturbing.

At this pace, we can look forward to the day when marijuana is literally the only thing still growing in our once-majestic wilderness, and as insane as it sounds, I wouldn’t even be surprised to find law enforcement still bragging about their success as marijuana fields wind their way across every hillside from Orange Country to Olympia.

Parents Arrested After Fifth Grader Turns Them In For Having Marijuana Joints; Kid Inspired By L.A.-Founded D.A.R.E. Program

D.A.R.E. ensares parents who smoke — gasp — joints.

​ You gotta love D.A.R.E., the anti-drug program created by late Los Angeles police Chief Daryl Gates in 1983. It’s done a great job of eradicating drugs in schools. More importantly, it’s made snitches out of children who have been taught by cops to turn in their parents.

That’s what happened last week in Matthews, North Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte, where an 11-year-old elementary school kid brought a few joints to campus and turned them in, saying they belonged to mom and dad.

This, of course, was after the good officers at D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) came to school to give their anti-drug lecture.

Broward County Sheriff’s detectives are looking for the owner of 38 bales of marijuana that were left inside a van in West Park, Florida.

​Broward County, Florida Sheriff’s Office detectives are looking for the rightful owner of 38 bales of marijuana that were left unattended inside a van in West Park.

Deputies responded to the parking lot of the Home Depot on Friday morning after someone complained about a van that was parked across several parking spaces, reports CBS 12. Deputies inspected the exterior of the van and smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming form inside.

Peeking through the van’s windows, all they could see was a blue tarp covering a “large bundle.”

Drug detection dogs were called to the scene and alerted to the scent. A search of the van revealed it contained 38 “large bags” (they look more like bricks to me) of marijuana.

The total load got a “cop estimate” of $2.2 million, but that doesn’t really mean a lot, especially since they didn’t bother to say exactly how much pot fits in “38 large bags.”

Investigators are trying to track down the origin of the van and the weed, as well as the owner of both.

Anyone with information about the drugs or the owner is asked to contact the Broward Sheriff’s Office at 954-765-4321 or Broward Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 954-493-TIPS. You can also visit www.browardcrimestoppers.org online.

I can’t tell you to leave spurious, humorous and insulting tips, because that would clearly be illegal and oh-so-direspectful of the great state of Florida’s harsh marijuana laws.

As you’ve heard many times over the past months, LEAP has been preparing for the launch of our new website, and it’s finally up and running! Please click over and look around – we’d love to hear your feedback! LEAP extends our sincere appreciation to the Riverstyx Foundationfor generously funding the redesign.

As you’re exploring the new site, be sure to sign the petition located on our front page from global advocacy organization AVAAZ. Their public petition in support of the Global Commission on Drug Policy’s recommendation for countries to establish a system of legalized regulation is a huge step forward in drug policy reform. As LEAP supporters, you should be a part of this by signing the petition and continuing to move legalization forward. Let’s help them reach one million signatures!

We hope you enjoy our new site. Projects like this are made possible by donors like you. Please consider making a donation today in support of LEAP’s work.

Major Neill Franklin (Ret.)
Executive Director

Your donation puts LEAP speakers in front of audiences. To support LEAP’s work by making a contribution, please click here.

A judge on Thursday ordered the California Highway Patrol to return two pounds of marijuana seized during an arrest in August 2010.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge John Spaunor ordered the police to return the personal property of Kevin Smith (not the famous movie director) of Sacramento after the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office dismissed DUI and marijuana possession charges against him, reports Tom DuHain of KCRA.

Charges were dismissed in March after experts agreed that Smith did not have sufficient THC in his bloodstream to cause impairment, according to defense attorney Alex Veylupek.

Smith has a rare medical condition that caused him to black out behind the wheel as he was driving on Fair Oaks Boulevard last year, according to Veylupek. Smith also has a doctor’s authorization for up to three pounds of medical marijuana, the attorney said.

In court on Thursday morning, the judge asked members of the D.A.’s staff if they had an opinion about returning the marijuana. Veylupek said he objected to them being asked, rightly pointing out that the D.A. no longer had standing in the case, since charges were dropped.

The ruling is good news for patients who need to transport their medical marijuana, according to Ryan Landers, a member of the Compassionate Coalition, a medical marijuana advocacy group in Sacramento.

“I’m glad the judge followed the law and applied it accordingly and that he took the time to look into the truth,” Landers said.

Prohibited from holding a “March for Marijuana,” cannabis advocates in Brazil’s largest city had agreed with police to protest instead in defense of freedom of expression. But minutes after allowing the march, the Military Police brutally attacked the unarmed demonstrators with stun bombs, tear gas and rubber bullets.

About 1,000 people showed up for the rally Saturday in São Paulo’s financial heart. Television images showed riot troops charging toward the protesters when they tried to march down the busy Paulista Avenue.

Protesters, journalists covering the event, drivers who happened to be traveling in the opposite direction of the march and people who were simply walking down the street at the time became victims of police violence, reports Ricardo Galhardo at Último Segundo.

Henrique Carneiro, a professor of history at the University of São Paulo who was taking part in the march, was injured after being hit in the head with a percussion stun bomb and had to be taken to the hospital.

“Marcha da Maconha” advocates protest a judge’s decision to ban their march. They instead marched for freedom of expression, but were brutally attacked by police anyway

​Four of the protesters were arrested.

Students Lucas Gordon and Julio Delmanto, both members of the group ‘Desentorpecendo a Razão’ (Stretching Reason), which organized the march, were arrested and taken to the 78th Police Precincte with allegations of “disobedience.”

Arthur Tobias was reportedly arrested after police officers overran him, and a boy identified only as Cunha were taken to the 4th Police Precinct.

The original aim of the organizers was to hold a march for the legalization of marijuana, the “Marcha da Maconha.” However, Judge Teodomiro Mendes, of the Court of Justice of São Paulo, on Friday afternoon banned that march.

At that point, organizers agreed to instead hold a march in defense of freedom of expression, only to be attacked by the very police who had agreed to allow the demonstration.